On January 17th 2024, Los Angeles’ Hotel Mira made their way through the snow to Capital Ballroom for a sold-out performance. Joining them for the Snowmageddon performance was Vancouver’s Fake Shark and local act, Cold Fame. If the weather thinks that’ll stop Victorians from getting their fix of electrifying rock, then they’ve misjudged the passion of our music scene. Now before the snow melts, let’s revisit this night and the performances that made it so great.
Making their Capital Ballroom debut was local act, Cold Fame. The group continues to find their footing since they made the switch to a three-piece band from a five-piece. One aspect that stood out was how easily Damian and Jodi, the guitarist and vocalist for Cold Fame, filled the space now that there was more stage room. The two have really vibrant energy which takes over the stage and seeing it on display like this shows a promising future for the group. Their set included some great original tracks and also featured their cover of All the Small Things by Blink-182. The only true downside from this set and will continue to be a trend through the night, was the sound. I found that a majority of Cold Fame’s vocals were buried until I went to the very back of the venue. In no way to I associate this with the band as it was beyond their control, but it’s unfortunate when this happens as it takes away from the listening experience. Overall, it was a great opening set to start the night off and I look forward to seeing how the band continues to grow as a three-piece band.
Next up was Fake Shark, also known as my new favourite band. That’s right; the band had such a great presence and set that they easily found a place in my heart. The lead singer of the group, Kevvy Mental, has icon status. Wearing a jacket branding the same name as their hit, “loser” and having a fan blowing in their long blond hair, Kevvy easily took over the room with their style, humor, and talent. For their set, they gave us a little bit of everything, from System of a Down and Limp Bizkit, to their incredible originals. For sound, the subs were a bit too powerful giving an earthquake like feeling. This was an improvement compared to the sound of the last set, but still not ideal. To summarize: Great set, great performers, sound was ok, and Josh found a new favourite band; that’s a win in my book.
Finishing the night off was Hotel Mira. It had been just over a year since Hotel Mira visited Victoria, as their last performance was opening for Vancouver’s Dear Rouge at the same venue. Not much has changed since, but that’s not a bad thing since they were stellar during that opening gig and they are just as amazing for this headlining gig. The 15 song set gave everything fans were wanting, including tracks from their last full-length “I Am Not Myself”. The stage presence of Hotel Mira’s lead singer, Charlie Kerr, was everything especially wardrobe. Finally, for the first time all night, I felt that the sound was pretty good. A masterclass of a performance and excited to see when Hotel Mira drop by out city next.
During this review, I feel that I was quite harsh about the sound. However, this is not an isolated incident. Capital Ballroom is a really difficult venue for sound. If it’s not the audio for the bands, it’s the fact that everyone behind the sound booth talk through the performances. I don’t know when it became socially acceptable to just talk through performances, but it’s pretty lame in my opinion. This is not a bar, it’s a performance where people bought tickets to experience the music. This isn’t me saying to stop talking, it’s just me saying to be a bit more quiet. As far as the sound goes, it’s not bad at every event but especially for band performances, it’s always a struggle. Here’s hoping for a sound improvement during my next visit to Capital Ballroom.
